Method and system for medical imaging and information display

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a method and a system for medical imaging and information display. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is proposed a method of medical imaging and information display, comprising: acquiring imaging data of each point of a plurality of points in an imaging plane or imaging volume of a subject in each mode of a plurality of different imaging modes of a medical imaging apparatus; deriving, for said each point, a value by applying the imaging data of the point in said each mode and the imaging data of at least one other point of said plurality of points adjacent to the point in said each mode to a predetermined model, wherein the predetermined model is selected in accordance with a clinical medical application related to the subject; constructing an image based on all the derived values; and displaying the constructed image to a user. Accordingly, the novel method of medical imaging and information display may reduce the burden of doctors, and provide them with an image with a higher definition compared to the conventional ROI method.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/910,718, filed on Feb. 8, 2016, which is the U.S. National PhaseApplication under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No.PCT/EP2014/067139, filed on Aug. 11, 2014, which claims the benefit ofboth European Application No. 13194039.7, filed on Nov. 22, 2013 andPCT/CN2013/0812069, filed Aug. 9, 2013. These applications are herebyincorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to clinical medical imaging, and moreparticularly, to a method and a system for medical imaging andinformation display.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nowadays, clinical medical imaging plays an important role to providedoctors with the necessary information about patients. For example, avariety of imaging modalities, such as CT, MRI, Ultrasound or the like,are currently available to assist doctors in this regard. For eachimaging modality, there are different imaging modes.

Taking Ultrasound as an example, ultrasound imaging has been widelyapplied in clinical applications due to it being a non-radiation,non-invasive, real-time and low-cost technique. As is well known in theart, there are different kinds of modes in ultrasound imaging, forexample but not limited to, B-mode ultrasound, Color ultrasound,Contrast ultrasound, Elastography ultrasound including Strain ultrasoundand Quantitative Elastography ultrasound.

In order to have comprehensive information about patients, doctors oftenneed to combine imaging data from different imaging modes. How tooptimally use all the imaging data is a difficult problem for humanbeings. The main reason is that the clinical object exists in a highdimensional space and human perception is limited and lacks thecompetence to solve the high-dimensional problem.

Computerized techniques such as machine learning are better capable tohandle the high dimensional problem than human beings. Therefore, aclinical decision support (CDS) system based on computerized techniquesplays an important role in providing such comprehensive information fordoctors.

However, for a clinical object, doctors are required to first select theregion of interest (ROI) for denoting the object in an imaging plane orimaging volume of a patient and then apply the related analysis orcomputerized algorithms to provide the structural information,functional information or even the diagnostic information themselves.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,949 B1 discloses method and apparatus forthree-dimensional flow imaging using coded excitation. In performingthree-dimensional flow imaging using coded excitation and wallfiltering, a coded sequence of broadband pulses (centered at afundamental frequency) is transmitted multiple times to a particulartransmit focal position. On receive, the receive signals acquired foreach firing are compressed and bandpass filtered to isolate a compressedpulse centered at the fundamental frequency. The compressed and isolatedsignals are then wall filtered to extract the flow imaging data. Thisprocess is repeated for a multiplicity of transmit focal positions ineach of a multiplicity of scanning planes to acquire a volume of flowimaging data. Volume rendered images are then produced which allow theuser to view the data volume from any angle. In addition, the datavolume may be reformatted to produce two-dimensional images of arbitrarycut planes through the data volume.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventors of the present invention have recognized that the CDSsystem based on manual selection of ROI as described above has a numberof drawbacks.

Firstly, the ROI selection process is performed with different modesindividually and doctors need to select the ROI for different modes totry to denote the same object. It cannot be performed real-time and itis not possible to provide CDS information in the course of thescreening process. Moreover, this selection process may lead to mistakesand is time-consuming. Sometimes doctors, especially junior doctors,experience difficulties in selecting the right ROI and thereforeoverlook the object to be examined or diagnosed. Additionally, the CDSinformation is provided per ROI, e.g. one value for the whole ROI. Inother words, the granularity of the CDS information is low. In addition,as doctors are provided with the information from different modes forone local ROI, it is difficult for them to obtain an overallunderstanding of the clinical object.

Secondly, image data from different imaging modes are generally obtainedsequentially by switching among different modes, and the radio frequencysignal transmitted is generally different for different imaging modes.When the transmitted radio frequency signal is different, the number andposition of the pixels in the obtained image are different as well.Additionally, the imaging plane or imaging volume in different modes canbe different due to the change in the relative position between theimaging apparatus and the patient. For example, during ultrasoundscreening, the position and/or angle of the ultrasound probe held by thedoctor can be changed so that the field of view of the ultrasound probeis changed as well when the doctor switches between different modes.Therefore, the image data of different imaging modes do not havepixel-level correspondence. As a result, the pixel-level combination ofimage data of different modes becomes very complex.

As a special case, for certain imaging modes, the simultaneous imagingof different modes with pixel-level correspondence can be considered tobe realized. For example, the radio frequency (RF) signal sequence usedfor Color mode is the same as that used for the B-mode imaging mode.Based on this, pixel-level correspondence between Color and B-mode isachieved and the pixel-level combination of the image data from thesetwo modes can be realized. However, nowadays the combination of thesetwo modes is nothing but pixel-wise superposition of the imaging data.That is, the combined imaging data for each pixel is a sum of theimaging data of that pixel in the two modes. Thus, the combined imagingdata do not provide any additional CDS information. The doctors have touse them as conventional imaging modes and process them in theconventional way. Therefore, how to simultaneously process the highdimensional data in a satisfactory manner still remains a difficultchallenge for doctors. Meanwhile, the RF signals of these kinds ofcurrent imaging modes are often too limited to generate differentimaging modes. The number generally does not exceed two, which may beinsufficient for providing enough imaging information and realizing thesubsequent CDS processing step.

Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a novel method and systemfor medical imaging and information display in order to provide doctorswith comprehensive information from different imaging modes without thedoctors being burdened with selecting the ROI from imaging data ofdifferent modes. The different imaging modes are not limited to specificmodes and the number may be as large as possible, if desired, incomparison with the above-mentioned prior art.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is proposeda method of medical imaging and information display, comprising:acquiring imaging data of each point of a plurality points in an imagingplane or imaging volume of a subject in each mode of a plurality ofdifferent imaging modes of a medical imaging apparatus; deriving, forsaid each point, a value by applying the imaging data of the point insaid each mode and the imaging data of at least one other point of saidplurality of points adjacent to the point in said each mode to apredetermined model, wherein the predetermined model is selected inaccordance with a clinical medical application related to the subject;constructing an image based on all the derived values; and displayingthe constructed image to a user.

Compared to the conventional image processing method, the methodaccording to the present invention does not require doctors to selectthe region of interest (ROI) for denoting the object in different modesand then apply the related analysis or computerized algorithms toprovide the information themselves, so that the method according to theinvention greatly reduces the burden of doctors.

Furthermore, since in the method according to the present invention, avalue is derived for each point in the imaging plane or imaging volumeby applying the imaging data of the point and the imaging data of atleast one other point adjacent to the point to a predetermined medicalapplication related model, and then an image is constructed based on allthe derived values and displayed to a user, the method enables real-timescreening for doctors. For example, during ultrasound screening, whenthe doctor moves the probe to a particular place, the derived values foreach pixel in the field of view are vividly displayed as an image andpresented to the doctor in real-time, and when the doctor changes theangle or position of the probe, the presented image is updatedaccordingly. Moreover, it can present image carrying information aboutthe clinical object directly on pixel level, so that doctors can beprovided with a higher-definition image as compared to the conventionalROI method and obtain an overall understanding of the clinical object.Thus, the doctor will not overlook the object.

Meanwhile, the value for each point in the imaging plane or imagingvolume is not derived only from the imaging data of the point per se,but also based on the imaging data of at least one other point adjacentto the point. In this way, using the method may further improve thequality of the derived value and/or allow the derived value to delivermore clinical information, resulting in a better and more informational,constructed image. In other words, the output image is more useful andreliable for doctors.

Here, those skilled in the art may easily understand that the distancebetween each of the at least one other point and the point does notexceed a predetermined value. For example, in an example, the at leastone other point may be points closest to the target point. In otherwords, they may be upper right, upper left, lower right, lower leftpoints with respect to the target point in the imaging plane or imagingvolume.

The predetermined model can be any model related to a clinical medicalapplication to deliver clinical information related to the clinicalmedical application.

Typically, the predertermined model is non-linear. In one example, thepredetermined model is a machine learning based model. In anotherexample, the predetermined model may be a clinical decision support(CDS) model, so that the constructed image may provide doctors with theclinical decision support information. As for the CDS model, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that the CDS model may be a modelwhich outputs diagnosis information with respect to a subject such as apatient. However, the CDS model is not limited thereto, some kinds ofCDS model are such that the doctor is not able to obtain the diagnosticresult or health condition of the subject based on the derived values orthe constructed image. In other words, the output value of the CDS modelmay be structural or functional information regarding the subject, anddoctors cannot get the diagnostic result of the subject directly on thebasis of the structural or functional information.

Conventionally, images of different modes may be illustrated in a singleimage by overlaying/superimposing them together. In case of overlayingmultiple images, the image value of the multiple images are superimposedpixel-by-pixel, optionally with different weights. To the contrary,according to the embodiment of the present invention, the derived valuefor each point in the imaging plan or volume is not only dependent onthe image data of the point itself but also dependent on the image dataof the adjacenet points. Furthremore, the predermined model is selectedin accordance with a clinicle medical appliaction, which is typicallynon-linear.

In one example, the step of constructing an image based on all thederived values may comprise constructing an image in such a way thateach point in the image has a different brightness or color inaccordance with the value of the corresponding point in the imagingplane.

In this way, doctors may be provided with a clearer display so that theycan easily identify the portions that need further observation orevaluation.

Please note that the method according to the present invention may beapplied to different imaging modalities, for example, CT, MRI,Ultrasound, or the like. In other words, the medical imaging apparatusused in the method of the present invention may be a CT imagingapparatus, an MR imaging apparatus, or an ultrasound imaging apparatus.Alternatively, the medical imaging apparatus may also be a combinedmodality imaging apparatus. For example, it may be a CT/MRI combinedimaging apparatus which can perform the CT imaging modality and MRImodality in one apparatus.

In the case of an Ultrasound imaging apparatus, the transmitted signalsequence for the ultrasound imaging apparatus is designed in accordancewith time sequence, signal energy, and beam forming pattern of thetransmitted signal, so that the imaging data in the different imagingmodes are acquired simultaneously and point-level correspondence of theimaging data is established among the different imaging modes.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isproposed a system for medical imaging and information display,comprising: a medical imaging apparatus for acquiring imaging data ofeach point of a plurality points in an imaging plane or imaging volumeof a subject in each mode of a plurality of different imaging modes; aprocessing apparatus, comprising a deriving unit for deriving, for saideach point, a value by applying the imaging data of the point in saideach mode and the imaging data of at least one other point of saidplurality of points adjacent to the point in each said mode to apredetermined model, wherein the predetermined model is selected inaccordance with a clinical medical application related to the subject;and a constructing unit for constructing an image based on all thederived values. The system further comprises a display apparatus fordisplaying the constructed image to a user.

Various aspects and features of the disclosure are described in furtherdetail below. These and other aspects of the invention will be apparentfrom and elucidated with reference to the embodiment(s) describedhereinafter.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be described and explained hereinafter inmore detail in combination with embodiments and with reference to thedrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the method according to the present invention;and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system according to the presentinvention.

The same reference signs in the figures indicate similar orcorresponding features and/or functionalities.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will be described with respect to particularembodiments and with reference to certain drawings, but the invention isnot limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described areonly schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of someof the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn to scale forillustrative purposes.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the method 10 of medical imaging andinformation display in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

In the following, details of the method 10 will be described, especiallyin conjunction with FIG. 2, which is a block diagram of the system 20for implementing the method 10 shown in FIG. 1.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the system 20 for medical imaging andinformation display in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention comprises a medical imaging apparatus 21, a processingapparatus 22 and a display apparatus 23.

Here, the medical imaging apparatus 21 may be a CT imaging apparatus, anMR imaging apparatus, an Ultrasound imaging apparatus. Alternatively,the medical imaging apparatus 21 may also be a combined modality imagingapparatus. For example, it may be a CT/MRI combined imaging apparatuswhich can perform the CT imaging modality and MRI modality in oneapparatus. In the following, an Ultrasound imaging apparatus is used asan example of the apparatus 21.

Further, the processing apparatus 22 is coupled with the medical imagingapparatus 21 and may be a computer or other apparatus with CPU ormicrocontroller. In the processing apparatus 22, there are at least aderiving unit 221 and a constructing unit 222 for processing the imagingdata from the imaging apparatus 21. Please note that it will be easilyunderstood by those skilled in the art that, although the deriving unit221 and the constructing unit 222 are shown as separate units in theprocessing apparatus 22, they may be implemented in one and the sameunit as well. For example, the two units can be a CPU in a computer.

The display apparatus 23 may be any conventional display apparatus, forexample, the display of a computer or an individual display screen in aconsole.

At the beginning, the medical imaging apparatus 21 acquires imaging dataof a subject such as a patient as information in different imagingmodes. As mentioned above, in the case that the imaging apparatus 21 isan Ultrasound imaging apparatus, it acquires the imaging data of eachpoint in an imaging plane or imaging volume of the subject in aplurality of different imaging modes (step 11 in FIG. 1). The pluralityof different ultrasound imaging modes comprise, but are not limited to,B-mode, Color, Contrast, Elastography ultrasound including Strainultrasound and Quantitative Elastography ultrasound.

Next, the deriving unit 221, which is coupled with the medical imagingapparatus 21, derives, for said each point, a value by applying theimaging data of the point and the imaging data of at least one otherpoint of said plurality of points adjacent to the point to apredetermined model (step 12 in FIG. 1).

Further, the constructing unit 222 would then construct an image basedon all the derived values (step 13 in FIG. 1).

Here, the predetermined model is selected in accordance with a clinicalmedical application related to the subject.

In one example, the predertermined model may be a machine learning basedmodel.

In one example, the predetermined model may be a clinical decisionsupport (CDS) model, so that the constructed image may provide doctorswith the clinical decision support information.

As can be understood by those skilled in the art, the CDS model may be amodel which outputs diagnosis information for the subbject. It may be aCDS model that is pre-established or pre-trained for the clinical objector may also be an existing CDS model that is suitable for the clinicalmedical application related to the subject.

In one example, the CDS model may be a model used for liver diagnosis.Specifically, when a doctor diagnoses a subject with a liver disease,based on the information from ultrasound B-mode imaging, Color andElastography, using the method of the present invention, the doctor isdirectly provided with an image (or an image sequence) of differentintensities at different locations which denote the probabilities of aliver disease for the subject.

For another example, the CDS model may provide the output resultregarding the blood supply function of the subject. When a doctorevaluates the blood supply function in an organ of a subject, based onthe information of different ultrasound modes such as B-mode, Color andContrast imaging, by simultaneously using the imaging data from thethree modes, the CDS model can directly display the score values on theimage at every location denoting the blood supply function at thatlocation in the organ. With the method of the present invention, theobject of a clinical application is directly provided with theassociated “image” for doctors, which could support doctors to locatethe ROI for a possible disease and also be able to get the optimalclinical decision support from the whole displayed image.

However, the CDS model is not limited thereto. As is well known in theart, some kinds of CDS model are such that the doctor is not able toobtain the diagnostic result or health condition of the subject on thebasis of the derived values or the constructed image. In other words,the output value of the CDS model may be structural or functionalinformation regarding the subject. Although doctors cannot get thediagnostic result of the subject directly on the basis of suchstructural or functional information, this structural or functionalinformation can be helpful in assisting doctors and facilitates makingthe diagnosis.

In one example, the CDS model may be used to obtain a clearer anatomicalstructure by utilizing the imaging data from the B-mode, Color mode, andElastography mode. For the anatomical structure, it may appear as a highintensity of the B-mode echo signal. Although the term “high intensity”used here may also correspond to other things, in this case it onlyrepresents the high echo energy. The Color mode may provide bloodinformation to some extent, and often there is no structure inside thestrong signals of the ultrasound color image. The Elastography modeprovides elasticity information which may represent the structure fromanother point of view to some extent. With these three kinds ofinformation for imaging the anatomical structure, an artificial modelshould be established to simultaneously “utilize” them, and the outputimage directly denotes the structure distribution of interest.

In a further example, the CDS model may be used to obtain the vesseldistribution by utilizing the imaging data from the B-mode and Contrastmode. Inside a vessel, there is blood. Also the vessel has its ownstructure which might be represented as a high intensity of the B-modeecho signal. By considering these two aspects simultaneously, the vesselmay be better defined than by only considering one of them. Therefore,with the two kinds of information, an artificial model could be trainedto denote the probability of a position being a vessel. Then the outputimage denotes the vessel distribution.

In still another example, the CDS model may be used to obtain the tissue(material) image by utilizing the imaging data from the B-mode, Colormode, Contrast mode and Elastography mode. Some tissues have manycharacteristics, and B-mode, color, contrast and elastography, etc. mayrepresent one or some of these characteristics. By considering all ofthem, the kind of tissue might be well defined. To consider them all, anartificial model should be established. Then the output image may denotedifferent tissue distributions according to different applications.

Here, please note that, in step 12, the value for each point in theimaging plane or imaging volume is not derived only from the imagingdata of the point per se, but also based on the imaging data of at leastone other point adjacent to the point. In this way, further improvementof the quality of the derived value and thus the constructed image maybe achieved.

Those skilled in the art may easily understand that the distance betweeneach of the at least one other point and the point does not exceed apredetermined value. For example, in an example, the at least one otherpoint may be points closest to the target point. In other words, theymay be the upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left points withrespect to the target point in the imaging plane or imaging volume.

Next, the display apparatus 23 outputs the constructed image to the user(step 14 in FIG. 1).

In comparison with the conventional image processing method, the method10 according to the present invention does not require doctors to selectthe region of interest (ROI) for denoting the object in different modesand then apply the related analysis or computerized algorithms toprovide the information themselves, thereby greatly reducing the burdenof doctors.

Furthermore, since in the method according to the present invention eachpoint in the imaging plane or imaging volume has a value, which isoutput from the predetermined medical application-related model inaccordance with the imaging data of the point and the imaging data of atleast one other point adjacent to the point, and then an image isconstructed based on all the derived values of all the points anddisplayed to a user, the method enables real-time screening for doctors.

For example, during ultrasound screening, when the doctor moves theprobe to a particular place, the derived values for each pixel in thefield of view are vividly displayed as an image presented to the doctorin real-time, and when the doctor changes an angle or position of theprobe, the presented image is updated accordingly.

Moreover, the method of the present invention can present image carryinginformation about the clinical object directly on pixel level, so thatdoctors may be provided with an image with higher definition as comparedto the conventional ROI method and thus do not overlook the object.

Further, in the method according to the present invention, the value foreach point in the imaging plane or imaging volume is not derived onlyfrom the imaging data of the point per se, but also based on the imagingdata of at least one other point adjacent to the point. In this way, afurther improvement of the quality of the derived value and thus of theconstructed image may be achieved.

In one example, step 13 of constructing an image based on all thederived values may comprise constructing an image in such a way thateach point in the image has a different brightness or color inaccordance with the value of the corresponding point in the imagingplane.

For example, if the value of a point in the imaging plane is higher, thebrightness for the corresponding point in the obtained image is higher.Alternatively, if the value of a point in the image plane is higher, thebrightness for the corresponding point in the obtained image is lower.

In this way, doctors may be provided with a clearer display, so thatthey can easily identify the portions that need further observation orevaluation.

The principle of the present invention and the basic flow chart of themethod according to the invention have been discussed in detailhereinabove. Next, step 11 will be explained in detail to clarify itsrequirement.

As mentioned above, in step 11, the imaging data of each point in animaging plane or imaging volume of a subject in a plurality of differentimaging modes should be acquired (step 11 in FIG. 1).

The reason for using the expression “the imaging data of each point indifferent imaging modes” is that, in order to perform pixel-level imageprocessing, pixel-level correspondences among all the modes should beobtained to guarantee information correspondence at every location(point) for the following process. For CT and MR imaging, due to theimaging principle thereof, pixel-level correspondences among all themodes seem to be feasible. For ultrasound imaging, however, it is verydifficult.

Specifically, currently, the ultrasound system cannot directly providepixel-level correspondences upon scanning mode changes. For differentmodes (B-mode, Color, Contrast, Strain, and Quantitative Elastography),the images are quite different. Therefore the conventional registrationalgorithms are no longer suitable here.

As mentioned in the background of the present invention, for someultrasound imaging modes, simultaneously imaging different modalitieswith pixel-level correspondences can be considered to be realized. Forexample, as the color imaging, the radio frequency (RF) signal sequencefor color modality can be also used to get the B-mode imaging modality.Based on this, the pixel-level correspondence between color and B-modeis realized for real-time imaging. However, for using these simultaneousmodalities, nowadays they are simply pixel-level combined for thedisplay, and then doctors need to use them as the conventional imagingmodalities and process them in the conventional ways. Therefore, how tosimultaneously process the high dimensional data well still is adifficult challenge for doctors. Meanwhile, the RF signals of thesekinds of current imaging modalities are often too limited to generatedifferent imaging modes. The number of said signals is generally justtwo, which may be insufficient for providing enough imaging informationand realizing the subsequent CDS processing. When considering a largerange of imaging modes in ultrasound, their raw imaging RF data arequite different.

Therefore, in view of the above mentioned problem regarding ultrasoundimaging, the inventors of the present invention further propose tospecifically design the transmitted signal sequence for the ultrasoundimaging apparatus in order to achieve pixel-level correspondence amongall the ultrasound imaging modes.

In principle, the inventors of the present invention have found that thetransmitted signal sequence for the ultrasound imaging apparatus may bedesigned in accordance with time sequence, signal energy, and beamforming pattern of the transmitted signal, so that the imaging data inthe different imaging modes are acquired simultaneously and point-levelcorrespondence of the imaging data is established among the differentimaging modes.

In one example, the imaging modes comprise at least two of the fivemodes: B-mode, Color, Contrast, Strain, and Elastography.

In a further example, if all five ultrasound imaging modes are to beused, the transmitted signal sequence may be designed to comprise threetypical ultrasound plane-transmits interpolated with two high-energy andhigh-focused ultrasound plane-transmits, in which the phase of thesecond typical ultrasound plane-transmit is inversed.

Generally, a transmit signal sequence for imaging in one mode can beconsidered to consist of many ultrasound transmits. For different modes,the required combinations of transmits are different. For example,B-mode imaging requires at least one typical ultrasound plane-transmit.Color imaging should require at least three typical ultrasoundplane-transmits. Strain imaging requires at least two typical ultrasoundplane-transmits. Shear wave quantitative Elastography requires at leasttwo high-energy and high-focused ultrasound plane-transmits. Contrastimaging requires at least two typical ultrasound plane-transmits and oneinverse plane-transmit. For the method of the present invention, thesimultaneous imaging of different modes is required. If the conventionaltransmitting hardware does not change and all the transmitted signals ofthe abovementioned modes are just directly combined so as to form acascade of the different transmit signal sequences, there will be atleast 1+3+2+2+3=11 plane-transmits for the total transmitted signalsequence. Transmit signal sequences consisting of too manyplane-transmits may result in a low frame rate for imaging and mayfurther affect the “simultaneous obtaining of the information ofdifferent modes”.

Based on this consideration, the transmitted signal sequence and therelated hardware should be specifically designed. The basic principle isthat the plane-transmits for one mode should also be applicable for theimaging of other modes, for which the detailed order of appearance inone signal sequence may change. Also with respect to the above example,one possible RF signal transmitted sequence may be three typicalultrasound plane-transmits interpolated with two high-energy andhigh-focused ultrasound plane-transmits, in which the second typicalultrasound plane-transmit should be inverted in phase. For receiving,the first typical ultrasound plane-transmit is typically received togenerate the B-mode imaging. The first and third typical ultrasoundplane-transmits are typically received to generate the strain mode. Thefirst and third typical ultrasound plane-transmits are typicallyreceived and the second typical ultrasound plane-transmit is inverselyreceived to generate the Color mode. For the two high-energy andhigh-focused ultrasound plane-transmits, the fast receiving scans shouldbe performed directly after each of them and then the shear waveElastography can be obtained. For the Contrast mode, the three typicalultrasound plane-transmits are typically received to generate thecontrast image information. It can be seen that the total number of theplane-transmits in the sequence is only 5.

Since all the different modes come from the same raw transmitted signalsequence, the pixel-level correspondences between different modes can bewell obtained. Due to different hardware characteristics, the maximumendurable number of plane-transmits for real-time imaging may vary andtherefore more plane-transmits may be used for one mode. But the basicdesign principle for the method of the present invention should remainthe same.

Although FIG. 2 only shows the basic block diagram of the system 20according to the present invention, it may be easily understood by thoseskilled in the art that, corresponding to each step in the abovedescribed method 10, there could be a corresponding unit to perform therelevant method step.

As for the units 221 and 222 comprised in the processing apparatus 22,in one example, the processing apparatus 22 per se may be a personalcomputer with CPU and memory, a Single-chip Microcomputer or a CPU(i.e., a processing unit) alone. Therefore, the respective unitscomprised therein may be implemented as software or computer-readableinstructions.

However, as will be easily understood by those skilled in the art, therespective units, may be hardware entities as well. In other words, theprocessing apparatus 22 may be composed of distinct hardware modules.Each of the units may be implemented by a single processor or aplurality of processors.

Please note that the steps of the method 10 shown in the presentinvention should not be limited to the steps mentioned above. It will beapparent to those skilled in the art that the various aspects of theinvention claimed may be practiced in other examples that depart fromthese specific details.

Further, please note that although ROI is used throughout thespecification, those skilled in the art may easily understand that theterm ROI “region of interest” is used in the case of a 2D scenario,whereas the term VOI, i.e., “volume of interest”, is used in the case of3D.

Furthermore, as can be easily understood by those skilled in the art, inthe apparatus claim enumerating several means, several of these meanscan be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact thatcertain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims doesnot indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used toadvantage.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustraterather than limit the invention and that those skilled in the art wouldbe able to design alternative embodiments without departing from thescope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placedbetween parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. Theword “comprising” does not exclude the presence of elements or steps notlisted in a claim or in the description. The word “a” or “an” precedingan element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of suchelements. In the system claims enumerating several units, several ofthese units can be embodied by one and the same item of software and/orhardware. The usage of the words first, second and third, et cetera,does not indicate any ordering. These words are to be interpreted asnames.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system for medical imaging andinformation display, comprising: at least one processor in communicationwith an ultrasound probe; the processor further configured to: derive aimaging sequence corresponding to a plurality of planes within animaging volume, where at least one of the plurality of planescorresponds to two or more imaging modes; receive imaging data acquiredby the ultrasound probe in accordance with the imaging sequence; derivevalues for a plurality of points within each acquired plane, wherein avalue for each particular point corresponds to: a locale of theparticular point in each plane; and a clinical indication associatedwith other points adjacent to the particular point; and construct animage based on all the derived values.
 2. The system according to claim1, wherein a distance between the particular point and the adjacentpoint does not exceed a predetermined distance.
 3. The system accordingto claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a display, and theprocessor is configured to display the constructed image on the display.4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the imaging sequencecomprises the time sequence, signal energy, and beam forming pattern ofultrasound signals tranmitted form the ultrasound probe.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the imaging modes comprise at least two modesselected from the group consisting of B-mode, color mode, contrast mode,and elastography mode.
 6. The system according to claim 1, wherein thederived value of the point corresponds to a brightless or intensity ofthe point within the imaging data.